[Politics] Blogs AREN’T that powerful

A very good point, in fact. But really. Anyone who’s honest enough about the power of the Internet will tell you the same thing. Blogs in Malaysia are not that powerful (At least not during the elections). Anyone who believes that they are are paranoid, or deluding themselves. There are some politicians who have made their blogs their life, but unless it was by their blogs that they came to prominence (Jeff Ooi comes to mind) then they should really not be relying on their blogs to get the word out. Even if they did become famous because of their blogs, they should not rely on it to be their main spokespiece. They should be instead be going out to meet the people.

The blogs could be used as a way to set meetings and date times for the people. This would place the politician in easy reach though he/she must be careful of the personal details they leave in the blog. I’d recommend a blog actually to be more of a record-keeper and minor thoughts recorder than an actual blog. This is more because those surfing political blogs would be more interested in what the politician is doing rather than what his thoughts are on this and that. The people who would be interested in the former would generally be his opponent and those outside, but his own constituents would want to know what he did.

Would I want to subscribe to a politician’s blog? I did twice, and I’ve taken to skipping both for this GE. Call it information overload, but I honestly cannot tahan (stand in Malay as in tolerate) DAP Advisor Lim Kit Siang’s blog. His walls of text and style of writing put me to sleep (Sorry Mr Lim Kit Siang). The only one I do read (though I’m getting turned off by the amount of anti-BN rheotoric) is Nat’s Jelas.Info. Even so, I still enjoy reading his blog, which is a wonderful mix of personal and political matters.

There are a number of issues that I’m not too happy with in this present administration, but I’m echoing the call: Unless you’ve registered as a voter, you have no right to complain. You get the govt you voted (or didn’t vote for).

That said: Pak Lah, can we have our town councils elections back? I’d sure like to kick some of them out from PJ. Though I have to admit, their frontliners are very pleasant and nice people to work with.

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One thought on “[Politics] Blogs AREN’T that powerful”

What if you’d like to vote, but you can’t because the Government refuses to recognize you as a citizen despite being born and raised in Malaysia your whole life? Do you get a right to complain about that too?

or what if you’re too young to vote? A lot of government issues (censorship, free speech, freedom of association) affect younger people, who don’t have voting rights.

Geminianeyes: I’m referring more to those who are eligible to vote and register but who choose not to, especially those who whine about our Govt being unfair and all. It’s one thing if you are denied the ability to vote on any reason (especially when the Govt is being an ass about it), but it’s quite another when you have the ability and the opportunity to vote, but you don’t. They were the ones I was mentioning about.